The present invention relates to a radiation image reading system which reads a radiation image obtained by radiographing a patient for a diagnosis in a hospital, and to a radiation image reading method.
There have been known a radiation image radiographing apparatus which conducts irradiation of radiation on a specific region of a patient in a medical institution such as a hospital and accumulates and records image information on a semiconductor X-ray detecting element or on an accelerated phosphor (stimulable phosphor), and a radiation image reading apparatus for reading the aforesaid image information. In a general hospital having many patients, there are installed many radiation image radiographing apparatuses and many radiation image reading apparatuses, and patients are radiographed to obtain radiation images which are read immediately after radiographing.
When plural apparatuses are installed as stated above, radiographing of a patient for radiation images and reading of the radiation images which are to be conducted on each apparatus which once accepted the patient are sometimes canceled for various reasons such as maintenance or troubles of each apparatus, or availability of a radiologist, and radiographing and reading need to be conducted on another apparatus. In such a case, when an apparatus to conduct radiation image reading and radiographing can not be switched to another apparatus smoothly, confusion takes place easily in the hospital having a large number of patients, for example. If such confusion takes place frequently, there is a fear that a diagnosis by means of radiation images is affected adversely, which is not preferable.
An object of the invention is to provide a radiation image reading system wherein even when radiographing of a patient for radiation images and reading of the radiation images are canceled on each apparatus which accepted the patient, that apparatus can be switched to another apparatus for reading radiation images smoothly and simply, when plural radiation image reading apparatuses are installed, and to provide a radiation image reading method.
The above object can be attained by the following system and method.
A radiation image reading system, comprises:
a plurality of reading apparatus to read a radiation image and to produce image data; and
an information transmitting apparatus to transmit information regarding a patient to at least a reading apparatus of the plurality of reading apparatus; wherein when the information regarding the patient transmitted by the information transmitting apparatus is canceled, the information regarding the patient is transmitted by the information transmitting apparatus to another reading apparatus other than the reading apparatus to which the information regarding the patient was firstly transmitted.
A radiation image reading system, comprises:
a plurality of reading apparatus to read a radiation image of a patient,
at least one of the plurality of reading apparatus comprising a display to indicate information regarding the patient, wherein the display is capable of indicating information regarding a patient whose image is expected to be read by the other reading apparatus; and
the reading apparatus further comprising canceling means for canceling the information regarding the patient whose image is expected to be read by the other reading apparatus,
wherein when the canceling means of a reading apparatus cancels the information regarding the patient whose image is expected to be read by the other reading apparatus, the canceled information regarding the patient is transmitted from the other reading apparatus to the reading apparatus.
A radiation image reading system, comprises:
a plurality of reading apparatus to read a radiation image of a patient,
at least one of the plurality of reading apparatus comprising a display to indicate information regarding the patient, wherein the display is capable of indicating information regarding a patient whose image is expected to be read by the other reading apparatus; and
the reading apparatus further comprising canceling means for canceling the information regarding the patient whose image is expected to be read by itself,
wherein when the canceling means of a reading apparatus cancels the information regarding the patient whose image is expected to be read by the reading apparatus, the canceled information regarding the patient is transmitted from the reading apparatus to the other reading apparatus.
A radiation image reading system, comprises:
inputting means for inputting information regarding a patient;
a display to indicate the information regarding the patient inputted by the inputting means, the display capable of indicating information regarding a patient inputted to other reading apparatus;
canceling means for canceling the information regarding the patient inputted to the other reading apparatus; and
receiving means for receiving the information regarding the patient canceled by the canceling means from the other reading apparatus.
A radiation image reading system, comprises:
inputting means for inputting information regarding a patient;
a display to indicate the information regarding the patient inputted by the inputting means, the display capable of indicating information regarding a patient inputted to other reading apparatus; and
a controller to control so as to transmit the information regarding the patient to other reading apparatus when the information regarding the patient inputted by the inputting means is canceled by the other reading apparatus.
A method of reading a radiation image, comprises steps of:
inputting receiving information to reception inputting means provided at a position to receive a patient;
transmitting at least a radiation image reading apparatus of a plurality of radiation image reading apparatus;
canceling the information regarding the patient transmitted to the radiation image reading apparatus of the plurality of radiation image reading apparatus; and
transmitting the canceled information regarding the patient to another radiation image reading apparatus other than the radiation image reading apparatus to which the information regarding the patient was firstly transmitted.
Further, the above object may be attained by the following preferable embodiments.
(1) A radiation image reading system of the invention is characterized in that the radiation image reading system is equipped with an acceptance inputting means installed at the position to accept a patient and with plural radiation image reading apparatuses which is connected with the acceptance inputting means and reads a radiation image of the radiographed region of a patient, and registration information of a patient inputted from the acceptance inputting means is transmitted respectively to each radiation image reading apparatus, and then, when the transmitted registration information is canceled, information of the cancellation is transmitted to the radiation image reading apparatus which has received the registration information, and the canceled registration information is transmitted again to another radiation image reading apparatus.
In the invention, when reading of radiation images is canceled on a certain radiation image reading apparatus, information of the cancellation is transmitted to the image reading apparatus, and the canceled registration information is transmitted again to another radiation image reading apparatus. Therefore, it is possible to switch the apparatus for reading radiation images to another apparatus simply, and thereby to continue the reading of radiation images smoothly. Further, if the registration information is eliminated from the radiation image reading apparatus, it is possible to reduce confusion that plural reading apparatuses conduct reading based on the same registration information.
(2) In the radiation image reading system of (1), it is possible to arrange so that the cancellation information mentioned above and the canceled registration information stated above may be transmitted from the acceptance inputting means. Due to this, changes of radiation image reading apparatuses can be controlled in a centralized manner in the course of acceptance, and changes of apparatuses for reading radiation images can be made more smoothly.
(3) In the radiation image reading system of (1) or (2), by arranging so that the registration information may be canceled in each radiation image reading apparatus stated above, when the radiation image reading apparatus becomes unable to read radiation images for some reasons, for example, it is possible to cancel on the apparatus side, which is convenient in using apparatuses.
(4) In the radiation image reading system of (3), it is possible to arrange so that the acceptance inputting means is equipped with a display section, and the cancellation information is transmitted from the radiation image reading apparatus to the acceptance inputting means and is displayed on the display section, and the canceled registration information is transmitted from the acceptance inputting means to another radiation image reading apparatus.
(5) Another radiation image reading apparatus of the invention is characterized in that there are provided plural radiation image reading apparatuses each having a display section for displaying registration information of a patient and reading radiation images of a radiographed region of a patient, registration information of the plural radiation image reading apparatuses can be displayed on the display section of the radiation image reading apparatus, the registration information of the other radiation image reading apparatus can be canceled from one radiation image reading apparatus, and the canceled registration information can be transmitted to another radiation image reading apparatus from the radiation image reading apparatus on which the registration information has been canceled.
In the invention, when registration information of another radiation image reading apparatus is canceled from one radiation image reading apparatus by displaying the registration information of the other radiation image reading apparatus on the display section of each radiation image reading apparatus, it is possible to cancel the registration information on the apparatus side and to switch the apparatus for reading the radiation image to the other apparatus, because the canceled registration information can be transmitted to the other radiation image reading apparatus. In other words, it is possible to observe, on the display section of each radiation image reading apparatus, the information based on registration information relating to images which will be read by other reading apparatus. Therefore, when another apparatus is busy, it is possible to cancel registration information of the busy apparatus and to receive the registration information. If this is applied to the total radiation image reading systems so that registration information of the apparatuses of the total systems may be displayed, the total systems can conduct efficient reading.
(6) In the radiation image reading system of one of (1) to (5), it is also possible to arrange so that each radiation image reading apparatus mentioned above may read radiation images accumulated and recorded on a semiconductor X-ray detecting element.
(7) In the radiation image reading system of one of (1) to (6), when each radiation image reading apparatus mentioned above has a function as a radiation image radiographing apparatus which accumulates and records radiation images on a semiconductor X-ray detecting element, it is possible to make the aforesaid changes to other apparatuses smoothly and simply even in the case of radiographing radiation images, and to constitute a radiation image radiographing and reading system which is equipped with the aforesaid function.
(8) In the radiation image reading system of one of (1) to (7), it is also possible to arrange so that the registration information stated above may include identification information of a patient and at least one of radiographed regions of a patient, a radiographing method and a size of a recording medium used for radiographing. Due to this, each apparatus can obtain identification information of a patient and information of radiographing. Thus, based on the identification information, it is possible to identify image information in the course of reading radiation images. Due to this, it is possible to design to make an apparatus subjected to the change to be the optimum apparatus in accordance with the contents of registration information.
(9) In the radiation image reading system of one of (1) to (8), it is further possible to arrange so that a storage means which stores the registration information may further be provided. Due to this, it is possible to make registration information to be stored so that it may be transmitted from the storage means as occasion demands, or necessary registration information may be obtained through access of an acceptance inputting means or of each apparatus. With regard to the storage means, when those having relatively large storage capacity such as a server are provided on all systems, centralized control is possible and information control is simple, or a storage section such as a hard disk may also be provided dispersedly on an acceptance inputting means and on each apparatus.
(10) The radiation image reading method of the invention includes a step to input acceptance information in an acceptance inputting means installed at the position where a patient is accepted, a step to transmit the inputted registration information of a patient to each of plural radiation image reading apparatuses conducting reading of radiation images from the acceptance inputting means, a step to transmit, when transmitted registration information is canceled, the canceled information to the radiation image reading apparatus which has received the registration information, and a step to transmit again the canceled registration information to another radiation image reading apparatus. Due to this, it is possible to simply switch to another apparatus so that it may read radiation images to continue reading of radiation images smoothly.
(11) In the radiation image reading method of (10), by transmitting the canceled information and the canceled registration information from the acceptance inputting means, changes of radiation image reading apparatuses can be controlled in a centralized manner at a reception, and thereby, the changes can be made smoothly.
(12) In the radiation image reading method of (10), by canceling the registration information on each of the radiation image reading apparatuses, when the radiation image reading apparatus becomes unable to read radiation images for some reasons, for example, it is possible to cancel on the apparatus side, which is convenient for the use of apparatuses. In this case, the apparatus from which the registration information is canceled can transmit the canceled registration information to another apparatus.